


Trick and Treat

by Frangipanidownunder



Category: The X Files Revival, The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-31 01:32:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8558029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frangipanidownunder/pseuds/Frangipanidownunder
Summary: What are they doing here?





	

He wound down the window and flicked the handful of shells into the street. The frigid air blasted her face and she clamped down the thought that ran through her head. Until he did it again.  
“Mulder, it’s minus three degrees outside and I’m not dressed for this.”  
He didn’t bother to look at her, and she kept her eyes front and centre, but she knew a smirk lifted his lips. “I noticed.”  
She wrapped her arms around her chest and turned to her window, only allowing her smile to flicker once she’d fixed on the dirty streetscape outside. “Why are we here, Mulder?”  
“I told you. It’s a stakeout. And I also told you that you didn’t have to come.”  
She chuffed. “After all these years, you think that I don’t know your secret language?”  
“What?” This time he did turn to face her. A passing car’s lights caught a glimmer in his eyes, casting off the years so that he momentarily looked like the Mulder of their early years. Eager eyes betraying his cool body language.  
“It took me a while, but I broke your code, Mulder.” She nodded at him, enjoying the flash of wariness that crossed his face. “You don’t have to come, meant I’m going to sulk for the next three assignments if you don’t come.”  
“Take that back, Scully! I never sulked. I am not a sulker.”  
She took a sunflower seed and cracked the shell, knowing he was watching her mouth. “You were too. You pouted, you were short with me, you deliberately left your expenses reports until you knew I would do them. That was also code, Mulder.”  
“For what?” He took a seed in his mouth.  
“I always liked to think it was code for Scully I am so in love with you that you leave me tongue-tied and I don’t know how to say I’m sorry.”  
He put his finger on the button to open the window. She smacked his arm.  
“Don’t you dare open that again. Spit it here.” She held out her palm. He obeyed, shaking his head.  
“I don’t sulk” He shrugged himself lower in the chair, lips pushed out.  
She chuckled. “Fine. But you still haven’t told me why we’re really here. We’re a bit long in the tooth for midnight stakeouts.”  
“Speak for yourself. I am in the prime of my life, Scully. Fifty is the new thirty.”  
“Mulder, you’re over fifty and that qualifies you for discount will-writing services and lifestyle living options.”  
He sat back upright, smirking fully now. “So cruel, Scully. I don’t think I’m ready for lifestyle living just yet.”  
She leant back against the headrest, feeling stupid. Now who was pouting?  
“Scully, have you ever played the game, Never Have I Ever?”  
“Cable tv is not good for you. Too many Ellens and daytime soaps.”  
“It’s fun, you have to propose a scenario…”  
“I know how you play it, I’m just wondering where this is leading.” She wished she’d gone for the bigger coffee. It was going to be a long, scary night.  
“So, let’s play. You first. Never have I ever…”  
“I’m not going first, I didn’t even agree to play.” She sounded shrill. He’d love that.  
“Okay,” he said, with a little too much enthusiasm. He had this all worked out, she was sure. “Never have I ever dated two people at the same time.”  
She didn’t think she blushed but it was the momentary hesitation that forced the surprised shriek from his mouth. “Dana Katherine Scully! I am shocked.”  
She laughed. “No you’re not. You’re impressed. I was young.”  
He gave her that throaty chuckle that always caused her stomach to jiggle. “Right. Your turn.”  
She sighed. “Never have I ever used my FBI credentials to gain access to a function I had no right to attend.”  
His laugh rocked the car. “That is such a Scully scenario.”  
She pressed her lips together. “So, what’s your answer?”  
“Of course I have. And don’t tell me you haven’t either. Power corrupts. Profilers, spooky alien lovers. Even educated MDs.”  
“Mulder, what are we doing here? You didn’t call me out in the middle of the night to play games with me.” She instantly regretted her poor choice of words.  
He moved closer to her. She could smell his cologne. “Not word games, no.”  
She shuddered. “Then what?” Her voice was barely audible above the drilling rain that was falling against the windshield.  
“Do you remember Rob and Laura Petrie?” His breath whispered over face.  
“Who?”  
“Our alter-egos in that gated community. Please tell me you haven’t forgotten that case, Scully.”  
She took a deep breath. How could she forget? His smug expression, his arm constantly round her shoulders, his infuriating personal habits. It had been a little window into how life would be with the man. “I remember the damn stork in the yard.”  
“Flamingo.”  
“And the pedantic interpretation of the rules.”  
“CC&Rs.”  
“Pedantry. Come on, Mulder, out with it.”  
“What would you say if I told you we were sitting outside the American Association of Illusionists headquarters.” He tapped the glass at the ordinary brick building with an ordinary grey door and narrow grimy windows.  
“I’d say that you’re imagining things, Mulder.”  
“Very droll, Scully. But people have vanished here.”  
“Oh come on, Mulder! This is not funny anymore.”  
He held up his hands. “Scully. I swear to you it’s a genuine case. A couple of regular members have gone missing. Vanished into thin air. It’s an X File.”  
She shook her head. “It’s a missing persons case at best.” He opened his mouth to respond. She put her hand on his chest. “And I am not entering that premises wearing this outfit.”  
“So what did you think was going to happen tonight, Scully? Why did you agree to get in a car with your crazy partner wearing that dress, stockings and a pair of Manolo Blahniks, that, by the way, look perfect on your feet?”  
She held her silence, raging on the inside at how she’d been played.  
“I’m genuinely interested, Scully.” His good cop voice, that sultry tone that usually got him everything he wanted.  
“I thought you were being… I don’t know… nostalgic. I thought you might have remembered…it doesn’t matter. Take me home, Mulder.”  
“No, finish. What was I supposed to remember, Scully?”  
“Never mind. I’m cold. My toes are numb. I need coffee. Home. Please.”

The door to the building opened and a body tumbled out. Scully went to open the door, but Mulder grabbed her arm.  
“Wait. We’re on surveillance, remember.”  
The man rolled over, staggered upright and walked right to their car. He rapped on the window and Mulder held her eye for a second, willing her into silence, before he lowered the window a crack. “Can I help you, buddy?”  
“They’ve all gone!”  
She got a whiff of the alcohol on his breath and chuffed out a hard cough.  
Mulder reached a hand over to her thigh, squeezing it gently. She bit back a moan. And was he wearing cufflinks? The one’s he’d worn when…  
“Who has?”  
“Everyone. Gone. Poof! Vanished.” He clapped dramatically and fell down.  
Mulder got out of the car and she had no choice but to follow. She checked on the man, who had vomited spectacularly over the wheels of the car.  
“Mulder,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “Where are you going?”  
He turned round, flashing her an incredulous look. “Inside. Where do you think?”  
“We need back up!”  
“Not if there’s no-one inside.” 

He raised his weapon in front of him, looked at her, mouthed to three and pushed the door. She flew through in front of him, heart hammering, gun still feeling unnatural in her hands. He was there, though. Right behind her, his presence enlarged by that ridiculous black trench coat he’d dug out from 1994. It flapped around him, filling the limited space in the dingy passageway. They checked each room. All empty. He holstered his weapon, and she relaxed. That was when she saw he wasn’t wearing a trench, but a black cape.  
“Mulder!”  
“What?!” He held his palms open to her. “It’s an illusionists cape. I had to be dressed for the part.”  
“Why?” She rubbed at the throbbing pain in her temples. “This was a stakeout not a Halloween party. Oh…”  
He swept the sleeve over his face, so that all she could see was the top of his head. “I did remember.”  
“Yes,” she said to her feet, “you do seem to have remembered.” Her cheeks burned. “But why all the secrecy, the pretend case? The guy outside, who was that?” Her voice was nasally.  
“The guy was just wandering around outside. I gave him a hundred bucks. He must have spent it on booze.”  
“Mulder,” she chided. “You’re still a hopeless romantic.”  
“Is it hopeless?” He wrapped her in the cloak, the satin tickling her collar. “We are still married, Scully.”  
She pulled away. “I can’t believe you tricked me like this.”  
“I thought you could break my code, Scully. And it worked when I proposed. Trick or treat, remember?”  
“How could I forget? You pretended to be having a heart attack so that I would give you CPR…”  
“Fair’s fair, Scully. You owed me.”  
“That was a rotten trick, Mulder.” She couldn’t help but giggle at the memory. “And then you said I had to go with you to the hospital Halloween dress up party to get my treat. And you wore an outfit that was strikingly similar to this one,” she said, tugging at the cape. “And you asked me to dress up as a Bavarian beer wench. Your eyes nearly popped out of your head.”  
“Allow me to demonstrate again.” He pulled open her coat to reveal the little black she was wearing. Not quite Bavarian beer wench, but she indulged him by pushing her breasts up and forward for him. His eyes widened. “I threw out the costume, Mulder. I’m sorry.” She felt ridiculously close to tears.  
“Tell me you didn’t throw out the treat – the ring?”  
She sniffed. “Oh Mulder, never. I would never do that.”

He remembered. Of course he did. But he wanted her to know he remembered. She fell towards him, grateful for his warm embrace.  
She had missed those hands on her back, that smug expression. “Why go to all this trouble, Mulder?”  
“It’s no fun if it’s too easy. You should know that by now.”  
She let out a soft laugh. “I’m not sure that I really do know you, sometimes.”  
“I’m a dark wizard?”  
She picked up the satin cape, and pulled him towards her. “Something like that.”  
“I don’t want to do fake marriage anymore. I want to do the real thing again.”  
“Like Rob and Laura Petrie?”  
“Only if you don’t ever put that green stuff all over your face again.” He pulled her close again.  
She snuffled out a tearful laugh against his white starched shirt. “You never did learn how to squeeze toothpaste out of a tube.”  
“And we never did make the honeymoon video.”  
“But we did spoon like little baby cats. Back in the day.” She grinned against him.  
“I’m not sure that baby cats spoon quite like we did, and back in the day is now, Scully. Come home with me. I don’t think you need to be a code reader to understand what I’m saying.”

He held her face in his hands and bent towards her, giving her the whisper of a kiss that promised so much more than a trick or a treat.


End file.
